Was the 12.0 barding change on turkey intentional?

Stratics VeteranStratics Legend

At first it required 160 barding (or so I heard) to provoc turkey, then that changed to 12.0, which was wierd considering how hard it was to kill any other way, many of us thought it was a mistake of the devs, so I thought they would change the difficulty again soon, but they never did (or at least not that I know of, haven't provoked any these last few days of event).

So maybe it wasn't the devs mistake to begin with? Or maybe it was but then devs decided to keep it? Too busy with Thanksgiving holiday?...

Stratics VeteranStratics Legend

Aren't the turkeys gone right now anyways? Does this even matter now? Not being a jerk but just sayin......

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Well, that's why I didn't post before because I thought it was a mistake to begin with, but later return to UO from holiday to find there was no changes on the turkey bard difficulty, hence this thread. I'm also a egg headed kind of person who likes to question everything and seeks answers even if it doesn't matter at all.

Stratics Veteran

Yes the 12 barding skill was intended, part of a mini-patch. I tried it out just because I could, with an imbued jewel set: 26 music, peace, provoke, discord skill. My non-bard got a batch of turkeys fueding and killed them solo. But most of the time I just got a map fragment for the solo kills.

However, I'm curious why you think that setting it to 12 was intentional, when it seems far more likely that they were supposed to be set to 120, and whoever did it missed a 0.
Honestly, why would they make it that most archetypes can't even make a dent in them, but a couple of hours plucking an instrument and NPC-bought provocation pretty much enables a player to solo them.

Stratics Veteran

Over the past couple years events have been designed around certain specific templates, this one was for bards. I hadn't played my bard in a while and enjoyed getting guild groups together to lure and provoke turkeys for the guild to share the maps and fragments. Next event may be fore stealthers or something else. I don't see the 12 as a mistake, it got a more people working together I found.

However, I'm curious why you think that setting it to 12 was intentional, when it seems far more likely that they were supposed to be set to 120, and whoever did it missed a 0.
Honestly, why would they make it that most archetypes can't even make a dent in them, but a couple of hours plucking an instrument and NPC-bought provocation pretty much enables a player to solo them.

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I thought so, too. It's simple enough to accidentally set a skill to 12.0 (120) on test shard when you meant to set it to 120.0 (1200). My guess is they left off a zero, forgetting the decimal, and by the time it was live they said "to hell with it, let the bards have their day".

Error or not, I saw it as a good thing. Every event doesn't have to be about who has the most skill or who can slay the toughest beast. This was a fun holiday event. Just look at all the positive posts. For once the positive far outweighed the negative. There was no overpowering, unbalancing loot given out. A few of the lucky folks may have a made few shinies off the rarer items, but I see nothing wrong with that.

Error or not, I saw it as a good thing. Every event doesn't have to be about who has the most skill or who can slay the toughest beast. This was a fun holiday event. Just look at all the positive posts. For once the positive far outweighed the negative. There was no overpowering, unbalancing loot given out. A few of the lucky folks may have a made few shinies off the rarer items, but I see nothing wrong with that.

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I agree.
As I recall, the only complaints I heard before the change was that they were too powerful, and 'needed' a legendary bard to kill.

The only complaint I do have, however, was that the turkeys became too geared towards the bard skills.
Even lowering the barding skill to 120.0 would have been a pretty large skew, but perhaps not overly so.
Plus, the AI that was geared heavily against other methods of attack made it pretty much not worth using anything but barding skills.

If it was intentional, then it was a bad design call, straight up.
It turned out nicely, and I know enough people who only really enjoyed the event after that change to suggest that the original design wasn't quite as solid as it could be.
But, as I say, it worked out great. Cornucopia's out the wazoo!
Just a shame they're shelving the turkey art... Some of the best to come into the game, recently (better even than a lot of the SA art, in my opinion).

Stratics Veteran

I thought so, too. It's simple enough to accidentally set a skill to 12.0 (120) on test shard when you meant to set it to 120.0 (1200). My guess is they left off a zero, forgetting the decimal, and by the time it was live they said "to hell with it, let the bards have their day".

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Exactly what I was thinking too, I'd done it so many times setting skills to 120 instead of 1200.

By the time they realized it, they probably thought, "oh, what the hell, let's give the players a break, it's all about having fun after all".

And in retrospect, even though I trained my 4x120 bard for ages, I have no complaints, it's much more fun when everyone could participate!

Besides, I think it's a great way to get players to try out playing bards. Maybe some will even decide to train up theirs.

Stratics VeteranAlumni

I'm personally really glad you did. I probably wouldn't have participated as much in the event if you hadn't. I think it was great because it exposed people to bard skills and hopefully encourage those who don't have a bard to make one.

Stratics Veteran

I'm personally really glad you did. I probably wouldn't have participated as much in the event if you hadn't. I think it was great because it exposed people to bard skills and hopefully encourage those who don't have a bard to make one.

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I was thinking about that, wondering now how many people are going to make barding characters now. I have a discoer but I haven't had a provoker for years, and now I want one again. They are super fun to play!

After they wre dropped to 10 I made myself a Bard. Had planned on it for a while, just never got to it. I'm at GM Musicianship, ~65 Peace Making, ~40 Disco/Provo. I am glad they made it 12 so I could have a reason to start my bard.

Stratics VeteranStratics Legend

I was Reluctant at first to go wide open on the Turkey's, I was waiting to see if it got changed. but after the weekend I figured it was all out war on them gobblers. even after waiting, I felt like I was cheating and kept looking over my shoulder for a GM to cart me off to jail for exploiting. but all in all I had a blast with this event.

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